New NCAA prez wants all to know there’s a new sheriff in town. That may not bode well for Georgia’s appeal of the A.J. Green suspension.

Chris Hawkins, on the other hand, doesn’t think the jersey sale was “that big a deal”. Funny how that works.

Kind of a strange quote from Mike Bobo about the game plan for Aaron Murray this week: “I don’t really know how you’re going to open it up with him. I guess just allow him to make some more plays would be the answer.”

I mentioned back in January when Richt was receiving hiring advice/criticism from AJ-C columnists that I’d keep track of how his eventual choice for defensive coordinator stacked up against the three established names that Richt was rumored to have made offers to: Smart, Chavis and Foster.

Do you sense a rising level of frustration on the Flats after last weekend’s embarrassing loss? Well, if you do, don’t expect Paul Johnson to do much about it.

“From the looks of the game, I can certainly motivate better,” Johnson said. “But you know what my experience has been in 31 years? That’s movie, TV crap. You’d better be able to motivate yourself. I’m not going to motivate you 12 Saturdays a year. Anybody that thinks you’re going to go into the locker room and somebody’s going to punch the locker, or cave in the blackboard or head butt somebody and everybody’s going to go ‘AAAAAAAAHHHH!’ It’s make believe. It doesn’t happen.”

Somehow I’m guessing there’s a happy medium between ‘AAAAAAAAHHHH!’ and Chan Gailey’s treat-’em-like-pros, hands-off approach. Too bad if Johnson can’t find his bearings to get there. It sounds like it may be dawning on him that he’s not coaching midshipmen anymore.

And this from a guy who worked for one of the greatest motivators in the history of college football.

… Ryan Mallett and his nuclear arm unloaded on the Bulldog secondary for 408 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions last year in Fayetteville, including eight completions that covered at least 20 yards on a 41-point night for the Razorback offense. It was arguably the worst defensive effort in Mark Richt’s nine-year tenure at UGA, the moment the dam holding back anti-Martinez sentiment was permanently breached…

Ehhhh, I’m not so sure about that last bit.

Don’t get me wrong – Martinez’ career trajectory had been on a sadly downward arc for some time before the Arkansas game. Georgia fans had seen a number of cracks in that dam Hinton alludes to (although it seemed for a brief stint in the second half of the 2007 season that some repair work had been effective). But it’s hard to see last year’s game in Fayetteville as The Moment. First of all, Mallett was insanely accurate with his tosses in the first half; I’m not sure any SEC secondary would have had much success defending some of those throws. Secondly, it’s kind of forgotten in the scoring barrage, but Georgia’s defense finally got some traction against Mallett and the Arkansas passing attack in the fourth quarter (he went 2-11 passing for only 18 yards and was sacked once).

So, no, I think there was still something standing, holding back the waters, until Georgia visited Knoxville a few weeks later. That’s when Willie lost Dawgnation for good. (And, I suspect, lost his head coach, too.)